When She Was Dead
by Syn2
Summary: The Scoobies tell Buffy what they did all summer--and the stories meld suprisingly...
1. Part One

Title: When She Was Dead  
Author: Syn  
Rating: R, for language and violence  
Spoilers: If you don't know by now that Buffy dies and then returns, then that's your issue.  
Setting: Summer between Seasons 5 & 6  
Archive: Take it, spread the love.  
Disclaimer: Relax, I'm just playing with them.  
Summary: The Scoobies tell Buffy what they did all summer, and the stories meld surprisingly.  
A/N: Been thinking about this one for a while and I finally sat down to do it. I wanted everyone to have a story in here, and to show bravery in the face of danger. Okay, almost everyone. ;) Also, this is shamelessly written in the style of Melissa Flores's "How to Date a Beautiful Woman". I will cease and desist now, I swear.   
  
  
*** *** ***   
  
~PART ONE~  
  
The Present  
  
Xander watched as Buffy walked into the living room, her hair pulled back from her face, eyes far away. Despite the haunted expression on her features, he smiled. She was back, she was really back.   
  
Five long months of waiting, wondering what had become of her soul hadn't been in vain because here she was, the Slayer and more importantly, Buffy. Not some cheap replica, but the real article. Again he smiled at her from his perch in the recliner, his hand fitting quite comfortably in Anya's. The ex-demon squeezed his fingers, her digits warm and steady. Across from Anya, Willow had her head on Tara's shoulder, a smile similiar to Xander's on her pale face. Dawn was curled up cat-like on the floor beside the two witches, running her fingers through her shiny locks and stealing glances at her sister. Giles was very quiet as he sipped at his tea. Out of the corner of his eye, he caught sight of Spike, who was trying and failing to become part of the shadows.  
  
:Why the hell is he here?: Xander wondered, annoyed.  
  
"What's everyone looking at?" Buffy asked, her green eyes shifting back and forth as if there was something wrong with her. Nothing but life, Xander thought.   
  
"You're not dead. We're happy." Anya said in patented blunt manner, eliciting a guffaw from Willow and a tight squeeze of her hand from Xander. Of course, she was right, but things like this took more delicacy.   
  
"Yeah. Me too...." Again, Buffy's voice trailed off and she clenched her fists, knuckles healed from her scramble out of her own grave. A week later and her skin still held the memory of the raw bloodiness. She pushed them into the pockets of her comfortable jeans. "So...what did you guys do while I was gone?"  
  
"Nothing much." Tara answered in her quiet way, her shoulders shrugging and lifting Willow's head with them. Xander noted, for the first time, that his best friend's red hair had grown longer. Strange, he hadn't noticed it before.   
  
"Nothing much? Oh please...remember that really tough Shervik demon? Or that vampire with the guitar? Or...Midsummer?" Dawn spoke up proudly, remembering her role in each and every escapade.   
  
"Oh yeah! Midsummer!" Willow said, glancing knowlingly at Tara, who looked back with a small smile.  
  
"Midsummer?" Xander's brow furrowed as he tried to recall what had happend around midsummer.   
  
"You know, demon cult intent on destroying the world. Dawn and I took care of it though." Anya said, tossing her blonde hair and smiling at the Key, who glanced at her sister, wondering if she'd be mad. Buffy just blinked and looked questioningly at the five of them.   
  
"You and Dawny? You mean, Tara and I!" Willow said indignantly, sitting up and squaring her shoulders.  
  
"Bullocks. If I recall, Watcher man, Buffybot and I had a rumble on midsummer night. Whole world coulda ended and all."   
Spike spoke up for the first time, taking a drag on the cigarette clenched in his fist. Xander rolled his eyes in the vampire's direction and went back to the others. Giles nodded in Spike's direction, as if suddenly remembering the event.  
  
"Yes, I recall that night. Don't you, Spike?" Giles said, cracking his knuckles menacingly. Spike looked away and Xander's brow furrowed.   
  
"So you all....there's a big story here, isn't there?" Buffy frowned, her far away eyes suddenly switching to the present and a ghost of a smile flitting over her face. Xander was pleased to see her so interested, afterall, he was too.  
  
"Yeah, just what the hell happened?" He asked, drawing Anya into his lap and frowning at her, his lip poking out.   
  
"Well, here's how it started..." Dawn said, siezing her opportunity and bouncing in place as all eyes riveted on her. "I'd gone out patrolling..."  
  
"WHAT?" Everyone but Anya shouted and Dawn turned bright red.   
  
"Just listen first, punish later." Dawn said, raising her hands. "Anyways, I'd gone out patrolling and I got into a little bit of trouble..."  
  
*** *** ***  
  
~DAWN~  
  
Midsummer's Night  
10:00 pm  
  
The wind rustled the trees, tossing the leaves and sending a moan through the branches. Dawn gulped back a small yelp of fear and steadied herself with a hand on the nearest gravestone. The gray marble was cold under her palm and she bit her lip, legs shaking.   
  
"This...isn't so hard." She said outloud, voice quavering as much as her knees. The darkness answered back with its own call, wind-ripped moaning and an assortment of snarls she felt sure where coming for her. In reality, it was just the freeway on the other side of the bluff, but you couldn't have told her different.   
  
A sword was hooked in the belt of her jeans, her long hair tied back from her face so she could see. Mr. Pointy was in her hands.   
  
Dawn felt comfortable with the heavy wooden object in her hands because it reminded her of Buffy. Thinking of Buffy sent a heavy ache through her and she clutched at the rough wood, wondering what her sister would have thought to see her standing in a cemetary at night, waiting for an oogly boogly to jump out at her. Not to mention everyone else, who was supposedly watching her tonight. It had seemed to her that everyone had things to do these days. Anya was at the Magic Box, the newly fixed Buffybot was out on patrol, Giles with her probably. Spike was who knew where and Willow and Tara had said something about a spells. Which had left Dawn to Xander, who had said he had things to do tonight and left her alone in the house. Bored and feeling pretty damn well useless, she'd decided to patrol.   
  
Which was possibly the stupidest thing she'd ever thought up. And that was saying something.  
  
She walked on, her eyes sweeping the darkness for lurky things. Nothing showed itself and she relaxed enough to walk forward, past the headstones and toward the oldest section of Lawndale Cemetary. Here, stone angels crumbled on thier bases, fat, pudgey hands pressed together in supplication of an uncaring God.   
  
Dawn trailed her fingers across the cheek of one rain-damaged cherub and down to the crucifix someone had left there, wrapped around the angel's fingers. "Who left this?" She wondered aloud, lifting it up to look at the small silver body of Christ attached to it. The silver was tarnished horribly, so it must have been there awhile. Years perhaps.   
  
Looking at it made her terribly sad and she let it drop, only to have the crucifix come away in her hands, the chain it had been attached to coming apart in a crumble of rust. "Crap." Dawn said, jamming it into her pocket for lack of anywhere else to put it. She hoped the person buried here wouldn't mind.   
  
Just as she looked up from her little task, she caught the sound of several somethings walking in her direction. She ducked behind the stone angel immediately, her stake trembling in her fingers and her heart thumping in her chest so fast she could barely breath. With squinted eyes, she attempted to see who and what was coming at her and she nearly ran when she saw them.  
  
Four brownish-colored demons with great big orange horns atop their heads and insect-like eyes were walking, a vampire clutched in thier strong hands, snake-like tails wagging as they went. The vampire squirmed in their grip, his golden eyes wide, his face twisted in rage. From her crouch behind the stone angel, Dawn could barely make out what they were saying and she strained her ears to catch everything.  
  
"Come on, be a good sport, Fabreccio! We just want to bleed you dry!" One of the demons said, his long tongue flicking out over his black lips as he talked.   
  
"Yeah, come on...don't you wanna?" The shortest of the brown demons laughed, his insect eyes catching in the dim light and bursting with a million flecks of light.   
  
"Hell no! I don't know what you bastards plan on doing but you'd better let me go!" Fabreccio growled, kicking his legs in vain, muscles straining and cording in his neck. From her vantage point, Dawn could see blood trickling from the corners of his mouth and a purple bruise blossoming around one ridged eye.   
  
She almost felt sorry for him when she saw the demons yank him in four different directions, threatening to pull him limb from limb. His screams echoed across the lawn and she winced. Whatever these demons were, they obviously weren't going to play nice.   
  
They continued on, toward her, but to the side. She could avoid them if she wanted and wouldn't have to get involved with them at all. After all, they had a vampire and not a human. What did she care? And then the biggest demon spoke up and her heart froze in her throat.  
  
"Tonight the world is going to end, Fabreccio, and you're going to help us." He said, bass voice deep and booming when it reached her ears.   
  
"Oh crap..." Dawn whispered, perking her ears up more and leaning forward. The demons continued on their path and didn't notice her from where she stood.   
  
"End?" Fabreccio whimpered, his teeth jammed against his upper lip, spittle flecking his chin.   
  
"Yeah. END." The demons jerked him again and he howled. "You eat a human and we drain you while you do it. The God Auturus blesses all Villsk demons and we ascend to the Higher Planes while other living creatures suffer eternal torment. Kinda pretty, ain't it?"   
  
"For you.." Dawn muttered again. She sighed and wondered how the hell her sister could do this. ANOTHER apocolypse and it seemed it was up to her to stop it. "Great."   
  
Scared to death and shaking beyond her ability to control it, she stood and stepped out from behind the stone angel, sword sliding out of her belt and the stake jammed into the pocket of her jeans.   
  
"Stop right there!" Dawn said, her voice rising a decibal higher than she'd meant it to. The sword shook slightly in her fist, but she refused to lower it any further.   
  
In front of her, the demons stopped in their tracks and turned toward her.  
  
*** *** ***  
  
The Present  
  
"What the HELL were you thinking?" Buffy interrupted, her mouth falling open and her fist clenched to her sides as if she was considering slapping whatever deity had blessed her with such a stupid sister. On the floor, Dawn sat a little higher and squared her shoulders defiantly.  
  
"I was THINKING I'd do the world a favor and stop it from ending. Where would I get those ethics, I wonder?" Dawn said sourly, her mouth turning down into an impetious frown.   
  
"Don't give me that. I'm the Slayer, that's my job! You're just a kid!" Buffy threw up her hands and rubbed the bridge of her nose with one weary finger. "Jesus..."  
  
"Hey now, love, it's not Little Bit's fault. We're the ones that left her all alone." Spike spoke up, looking pointedly at Xander. Xander bristled, but didn't respond. Instead, he turned on Willow and Tara.   
  
"So, wait a minute, if you were stopping the apocolypse, what apocolypse where you three stopping?" He asked, jerking his head at Spike also.   
  
"Same one, I guess." Tara said, her brow furrowed as she thought back to that night many months ago. "Except, we never really came in contact with the Villsk demons. And it was sort of an accident..."   
  
"Yeah..." Willow echoed, her green eyes far away and a troubled expression on her face. "I was doing this spell and it went kinda wrong."  
  
"There's a new one."   
  
"Shut up Anya. Anyway...the spell went wrong..."   
  
*** *** ***  
  
~WILLOW~  
  
Midsummer Night  
9:30 pm  
  
"What does that book say to do?" Willow asked Tara as the blonde witch leaned over the thick volume on the table in Giles's apartment. The Watcher peeked his head out from around the corner of his little kitchen and watched them intently.   
  
"I do hope you're going to be careful." He said, eyebrows rising high up on his tall forehead. Willow glanced in his direction and smiled, but didn't answer.  
  
"Of course Mr. Giles." Tara said politely, her fingertip running down the lines of ancient text before her. "And thank you for letting us use your place for the spell. We're trying to tone down the amount of magic Dawn is exposed to. We think it might give her ideas."   
  
"Yeah, after that whole ressurrection thing, we don't want her to get addicted." Willow added, sprinking more of the toadstool dust around the perimeter of the circle and trying not breathe it in. Giles nodded his head and wrinkled his nose at the smell emanating from the mixture of powders on his living room rug.   
  
He hoped the girls knew they'd have to clean it up.   
  
:Don't worry, we'll clean it up.: Willow said in his head, sensing his thoughts. He swiveled on her and shot her a warning look.   
  
"How many times..." Giles started, but Willow smiled and had the decency to look abashed, but she could still read him a bit as he turned away from her.   
  
"Sorry." The red-head went back to her powders and he sighed deeply. That smell was really going to drive him nuts. What he needed was a good walk and some action. Perhaps the Buffybot was about somewhere. "You can go, you know. We've got everything handled fine here."  
  
Again Giles shot Willow the warning look as she read his thoughts without permission. "I didn't read your thoughts. Its obvious you want to go." The witch amended, smiling slightly.   
  
"Is it?"   
  
"Kinda." Willow said, shrugging her shoulders, the coarse buff-colored robe around her shoulders itching her skin slightly. Tara looked up from her book and smiled at him too, the hood of her own robe floating around her pale face, strands of blonde hair falling out and over her blue eyes. Willow thought she looked beautiful.   
  
"And you're kind of in the way too, Mr. Giles. No offense." Tara said, standing up and bringing the huge book with her.  
  
"In that case, see you in the morning. If the Buffybot comes by, tell her to meet me in Restfield Cemetary." With that, he left, taking a stake and twin throwing axes with him as he went. Willow watched him go, thankful he hadn't asked what spell they were doing and why.  
  
"I thought he'd never leave." Willow said, throwing the last bit of the stinky toadstool powder on the circle. Tara nodded and Willow looked over her shoulder at the ancient text. "Did you find that last passage you needed?"  
  
"Yeah. Umm..t-there's also a w-warning attached to it." Tara stuttered, her eyes suddenly huge as she brought her face up to Willow's.   
  
"And? There's usually warnings when you're playing with dark magicks. We'll deal with the consequences when they happen, okay baby? Right now we need to find the Gatekeeper and that's what's important."   
  
"I know honey, but the Gatekeeper? Why him?" Tara asked nervously, biting her lip.   
  
"Because he might know where Buffy's soul is at. If...if we can't find the Urn of Osiris, at least we can know where her soul is. I've explained this already." Willow said, turning away from her girlfriend and sighing heavily, unshed tears threatening to spill over her cheeks. She felt Tara's hand descend on her shoulder and squeeze gently.   
  
"I miss her too...b-but this is dangerous for you. The Gatekeeper...all the stories say he's cruel and not known for the niceness. I'm just worried he'll do something to you." Tara said in her ear, hand sliding around to her stomach, rubbing gently like she knew Willow liked.  
  
"I'll be fine honey, as long as you're here to anchor me." Willow turned and tucked a strand of Tara's long hair behind her ear and then nudged the book in her hands. "So...let's get on with it."  
  
With a defeated sigh, Tara stepped into the circle, followed closely by Willow. They stood back to back, hands clenched together behind their backs, heads tilted back to the high ceiling of Giles's apartment.   
  
"Okay, after the chant, you have to hold me up because I'll be in the Spirit World. After an hour, make sure I'm back in my body. If I'm not you're going to have jerk me back or I'll...." Willow said, closing her eyes and centering herself.   
  
"Don't make me come and get you, please." Tara begged, clasping her hands tighter and centering herself too.   
  
"Promise." Willow muttered, feeling herself go into a deep trance and bringing Tara along with her. Ten minutes later, she took a deep breath and started in on the chant, Tara joining in on the second chorus as the book had indicated.   
  
"Gatekeeper of Death  
Grant me entrance  
I fall to your feet   
and tremble  
Fear you Gatekeeper  
as I cross the mortal world  
Grant me entrance!  
So mote it be!"   
  
They ended the simple chant and waited a few seconds, but nothing happened. Willow opened her mouth to speak and suddenly, the room shook and the world spun away from her. She felt Tara clutch her and hold her steady within the ring of power made by the powders strewn on the floor.   
  
With her inner eye, Willow suddenly Saw the Gatekeeper standing before her, ghastly smile wide. She opened her mouth to speak and suddenly the world gave way again and she spiralled up and out of her body, going so fast the wind stung her cheeks and little flames of power sparked across her skin.   
  
She no longer felt Tara holding on to her. She no longer felt as time was ripped away from her.   
  
And then...  
  
SLAM! Willow gasped for breath she didn't have with lungs she didn't have and then opened her non-existent eyes.  
  
She moaned with no lips, the throbbing, clutching cavern around her shifting back and forth between reality and the stars. Something had gone wrong.  
  
"Oops."  
  
*** *** ***  
  
~SPIKE~  
  
Midsummer Night  
10:00 pm  
  
  
Spike leaned back against the door of his crypt and took a deep swig from the bottle of whiskey clutched in his hands. The liquid burned on the way down and joined the molten lead already eating away at his stomach. Above him the stars shone brightly, blurred by tears he refused to shed.   
  
"I did it...my way..." He sang softly, voice warbling and his lips pulled back into a sneer. He snorted with laughter and then took another deep drink from the rapidly emptying bottle.   
  
He closed his eyes and felt the searing in his gut, thankful to feel anything at all. Long days of dreaming fitfully, saving someone he could no longer save in his mind for the millionth time. Each way different. Each way successful. He was a goddamned hero in his dreams.   
  
What was he in real life? A lovesick vampire getting wasted on what served as the frontporch of his crypt, tears spilling down his cheeks and the urge to throw up growing. That's what he was. He wasn't a hero. He was pathetic.  
  
"Hello Spike. You have nice abs!"   
  
FUCK.  
  
This wasn't what he needed right now. Not her. Definately not her.   
  
"Hello Buffy....bot." Spike choked out, swiveling his bleach blonde head in the robot's direction, his eyes deeply shadowed as pain spiderwebbed across his heart. "What are you doing?"  
  
The robot stood before him in all her glory. Eyes shining, leather pants, jacket, heels, long honey blonde hair unbound and glossy lips. Perfection.   
  
But not even close.   
  
"I'm patrolling. I accidentally let a vampire go; he was fast." She said, nodding her head with a serious expression on her face.  
  
"Was he?" Spike drawled, taking another deep drink from his bottle.   
  
"Yes. I fight with weapons!" The Bot said cheerfully, strolling over to him, a stake in her fist and an axe at her side. She looked ready for anything, except an IQ test.   
  
"Yes you do. Where is everyone?" Spike asked, looking around with glassy eyes. He took another swig from his bottle, remembering what it had been like to be inside the machine. She'd felt so real, even if he'd known she wasn't. He wondered if there was much of a difference between the two of them.   
  
He'd never know.   
  
*** *** ***  
  
The Present  
  
"Okay...TMI!!" Buffy exclaimed while Xander fought the urge to beat the crap out of the neutered vampire. Giles audibly cleared his throat.  
  
"Anyway...." Spike shrugged as if he hadn't heard them and went on.  
  
*** *** ***  
  
~SPIKE~  
  
Midsummer Night  
10:05 pm  
  
  
"Everyone had things to do! But I don't need them! I'm the Slayer! Would you like to have sex with me now?" Buffybot said, crouching before him, her wide green eyes studying his face hopefully.   
  
"No!" Even though he felt like saying different, "I thought Willow programed those commands out of you..."   
  
"Yes. I was broken and she fixed me. Willow's gay."   
  
"Yeah...so shouldn't you go patrol or something? Leave me the bloody hell alone?" Spike grumbled, suddenly annoyed by her very presence and desperate to get drunk alone.   
  
"You're mad. Is it something I did? Should I be spanked?" Buffybot asked hopefully, half turning her rear end in his direction. Spike growled and stood up in one fluid motion, grabbing her wrist and bending it forward, face melting into the beast as he moved.  
  
"Why won't you leave me the hell alone!!!???" He screamed, teeth bared at the blinking Bot, her eyes widening and her mouth forming a small o of surprise. "Why did you leave me, Buffy?!"  
  
"I'm Buffy!" The Bot exclaimed, bewildered because she was Buffy, she hadn't left. She was right here.  
  
"You're dead! You BITCH!" Spike screamed again, wondering when his lips had become detached and why his voice sounded so close.   
  
"Ow!" The Buffybot said with no feeling behind the word, her gaze flickering to the bent wrist in Spike's hands and back to his wild yellow eyes. "You're hurting me, Spike. Is this foreplay?"   
  
He'd give her foreplay!  
  
Her mouth tasted like cinnamon when he crushed his lips to it, and he wondered why. He wondered if he tasted like whiskey and then realized he didn't much care. A feeling of wrong twanged through his spine, but he ignored it and kissed her harder, wishing the world would end and spin away with him in the middle of it all. His loopy hands found themselves attached to her silicone breasts, squeezing and kneading without warning.   
  
Thoughts merely entertained were now dancing merrily in his actions and he was powerless to stop them. This was wrong, this was sick, but dammit, he wanted to feel....   
  
Suddenly, the Bot broke the kiss and stumbled backward, her stake rising in her fist. Spike wondered, through that alcohol laced brain of his, if she was going to stake him. He silently wished she would.  
  
"Demons!" Buffybot's voice rose and she pointed dramatically behind Spike to the door of his crypt.   
  
Three brown-skinned demons with big orange horns and flies's eyes sneered at the two of them.   
  
"Hey...how the bloody hell did you get in there?" Spike said stupidly, his blue eyes shifting back and forth between each demon.   
  
"Wow, we're in luck!" One of the demon's said, eyes glinting and muscles rippling. "A vampire AND a human. Call the others and tell them we got the ingredients!"   
  
"Ingredients? Are you baking a cake?" Buffybot asked before Spike could shush her. The demons laughed.  
  
"Yeah and you're the icing! Too bad though, I'd like to play with you before he drains you dry." One of the demon's said, horns scraping the top of Spike's door as he stepped out into the warm summer air. "Get em!"  
  
"I don't think so!" Spike swiveled on the newcomer and saw Giles step out from behind a tree.   
  
"Another human? Looks like we can play with the pretty one after all." The big demon said, a smile transforming its face to hideous heights.   
  
Giles stepped up beside Spike as the demon spoke and turned to him. "One for each."   
  
"My kind of odds." Spike said, smiling ferally, taking the axe Giles pressed into his palm.   
  
"We kill them and then we're going to talk." Giles said through gritted teeth, the other axe in his hands.   
  
Uh-oh...what had Giles seen?  
  
*** *** ***   
  
(end part one)  
  
*** *** *** 


	2. Part Two

*** *** ***  
  
~PART TWO~  
  
The Present  
  
"So these Villsk demons were trying to find a vampire and human so they could end the world?" Buffy asked, leaning back on the puffy chair, her hands straying to her face where she swiped away an errant strand of hair from her nose.   
  
"Yep. Wacky bastards." Willow nodded, her legs drawn up under her from her seat on Buffy's couch.   
  
"I guess they had three teams out looking for their sacrifices. But they didn't see us coming, eh Dawny?" Anya chimed in, grinning at the teenager on the floor. Dawn nodded and glanced at her sister for the thousandth time. Buffy merely scowled at her, obviously not moved by her sister's bravery in the interest of the world.   
  
"That's my girl, always with the bravery." Xander said proudly, stroking Anya's back through her silky shirt. She smiled at him and then the ex-demon turned back to Dawn.   
  
"You never told me how you got captured and thus taken to the Magic Box where I bravely risked my life to save you. Do it now."   
  
"Sure...if my sister doesn't mind?" Dawn said bitterly, a wry twist to her lips. Buffy rolled her eyes and nudged Dawn with the toe of her boot.   
  
"Go ahead sulky pants!"   
  
Dawn actually smiled to hear the happy tone in her sister's voice. With that smile, she sat up straight again and launched into her tale.   
  
"So I stepped out from behind the gravestone and they all looked at me. And I knew I was going to die. It was...kinda cool."  
  
*** *** ***  
  
~DAWN~  
  
Midsummer Night  
10:10 pm  
  
"Stop right there!" Dawn repeated, even though they had stopped dead in their tracks, a million pairs of inky black eyes swiveling toward her and reflecting her own pale visage back at her.   
  
"Human?" One said, mouth turning up into a frightening smile.  
  
"Now that is luck." Another commented, twisting Fabreccio's arm in his massive hands.  
  
"Grab her." The biggest one said, pulling the still-struggling vampire from the other's grip and standing aside. The other's rushed her immediately.   
  
"Crap." Dawn repeated, raising the sword chest level and gritting her teeth. They were going to kill her and she knew it. What the hell had she been thinking? She wasn't the Slayer? Hell, she wasn't even the Key anymore!  
  
The first demon grabbed for her arm and instinct told her to drop and roll away from his questing hands. She did so, rolling on the ground and landing in a sprawl in the manicured grass. The second demon was already launching himself at her and she brought the sword up in protection.   
  
Really, she hadn't expected to get anything with the swipe she aimed at him, but surprise showed in her eyes when the edge of the blade sliced off it's hand. Orange-ish colored blood oozed from the ghastly stump and hit the green grass in fat splotches. The demon roared and reeled backward, bloody stump clutched to it's chest, horns quivering.   
  
"Sorry!" Dawn said before she could think. What a minute...what the hell was she sorry for?   
  
Feeling a bit more confident than before, Dawn climbed to her feet, keeping the nearest headstone between her and the four demons and thier vampire captive. There was a sudden shift in power as the demon's looked from her to the sword to the severed hand on the ground before them and then back at her again.   
  
She was a threat.   
  
Pfftt...if they only knew how hard her knees were knocking behind the tombstone they wouldn't be afraid of her in the slightest. If there was one thing Dawn had learned from Buffy though, it was to never show them any fear. So her chin rose of it's own accord and her smile spread slowly, menacingly.   
  
"You want to end the world, you're gonna have to come through me, assholes." Her voice was steady and she thought maybe she sounded a bit like Buffy. Well, maybe more like Faith, but that would do just fine too.   
  
"What are you? A Slayer?" The one holding the vampire asked. Fabreccio's eyes clouded and he shook his head, as if remembering something. Dawn latched onto the demon's suggestion and went with it. What could pretending hurt?  
  
"Yeah. And I'm gonna Slay you. Cuz I'm Dawn the Vampire Slayer!"   
  
"I thought the Slayer's name was Buffy?" One of the demon's said and Dawn was amazed that the insect eyes could look puzzled. So amazed that she nearly missed what the demon had said. And then it hit her. Crap...  
  
"It was...is...she's dead! I'm the new Slayer and I'm ready to kick a little demon ass! Starting with yours!" Dawn's eyes flitted around in their sockets and she kicked herself for her own stupidity. Uh-oh. What had she just done?  
  
"Fresh meat, eh? Always wanted to kill me a Slayer." The big one said, throwing the vampire at the bleeding demon. Fabreccio stumbled to his knees and looked at Dawn through his jewel bright eyes. Again, she almost felt sorry for him. Almost.  
  
"Don't kill her! At least not yet! That honor goes to Fabreccio here! I wonder what kind of extra benefits Auturus will reward us with for Slayer blood on his altar, Orvak?" A demon pondered, his clawed fingers rubbing at his pointed chin.   
  
"Don't know. All I know is that I'm getting a taste of it before we kill her." The big one, Orvak, said again, advancing on her. Dawn felt her brittle facade waver slightly as she watched his powerful muscles cord and strain through his thin black robes. She was in deep shit and she knew it.   
  
So what would Buffy be doing right about now?   
  
Punning was out. Her tongue was frozen to the roof of her mouth and she couldn't hold anything in her mind, let alone something witty in the slightest. Fighting? Well she wasn't going to have a choice there. Fight or die and she'd rather fight than give in like that. Run? Not while they were still alive. Or maybe.....  
  
A single thought lodged itself in her brain and she clung to it, desperate for something, anything to get her out of this mess.   
Suicide, she decided, but at least she was going to give it a shot.   
  
Just as Orvak reached the tombstone, Dawn threw the sword at him. It clattered uselessly against his chest and thumped softly back down into the dirt. The momentary distraction it caused left time for Dawn to spring over the headstone and between the demon's legs. She snatched up the sword as she went, thanking God for the gymnastics lessons in P.E. she hated so much.   
  
Before Orvak could turn, Dawn layed back down, bringing the sword up between it's legs from where she had landed. Grimacing, she plunged it home and felt the point sink wetly into the genitals of the demon. Or, she guessed it was the genitals, not that it mattered to her where the thing kept it's demony bits. All she knew was that the demon was now screaming, stamping it's feet and reaching for her.   
  
Dawn brought up one leg and slammed her sneakered foot into the pommel of the sword, sending it sinking in further. Orvak screamed again and toppled over---on top of her. Dawn was too surprised to move out of the way, and not nearly agile enough to do it quickly.   
  
The breath wooshed out of her lungs as the huge demon covered her body, red spittle flecking the corner of his lips. She didn't know if he was dead or not, but he certainly wasn't moving. And neither was she, apparantly.   
  
"Crap..." Dawn moaned for the millionth time that night as the two uninjured demons descended on her, pushing Orvak off her body and hauling her up by her aching arms. That sooo hadn't gone the way she'd planned.  
  
"Good one Slayer. But what are you going to do now?"   
  
"I guess punning is out of the question?" Dawn ventured, eyes flickering over to Fabreccio's. The vampire was eyeing her strangely, his golden eyes narrowed.  
  
"Funny. She's funny, Mortalk. Hmm...a funny sacrifice." The demon who was holding her right arm said, yanking her much like he had done with Fabreccio. Dawn tried not to yowl with pain. Again, she caught the vampire's eye and he just stared at her.   
  
"Shit yeah, she's funny. So funny she's gonna die and I'm just gonna laugh..." Mortalk replied, snapping Dawn's attention back to the two demon's gripping her arms.  
  
"Please! Don't kill me! ." Dawn pleaded, meaning it for once. There was no Buffy to save her and no one knew where she was.   
  
"She's a beggar; I like that!" Mortalk laughed, tugging on her again. "Come on...we'd better get her back to the cave and Auturus's Altar if we want to get this thing done by midnight. Besides, we wanna have a sacrifice before Oblish and his assholes, don't we?"  
  
"Damn straight." The bleeding demon chuckled through his pain, hauling Fabreccio with him as he took a step. "Come on. We'd better end the world."  
  
Crap....  
  
*** *** ***  
  
The Present  
  
"Anya can tell you the rest." Dawn mumbled as Buffy glared at her.   
  
"But I want to hear what happened to Willow!" Anya said, looking over red-haired witch. "What did you do when another of your spells went wonky?"   
  
Willow glared at her for a moment and then spoke, "I knew I was trapped and I didn't know where the hell I was...so I started probing around. Bad mistake."  
  
"Why?" Xander asked, holding Anya's hand.  
  
"Because the demon's High Priest was looking for something and I think it was me."   
  
*** *** ***   
  
~WILLOW~  
  
Midsummer Night  
10:10pm  
  
If she'd had a stomach in this reality, it would be roiling. As it was she felt like she was perched on the edge of the world and was looking down into the abyss of stars, the only thing keeping her from falling a piece of paper that was slowly giving way under her weight.  
  
Willow was in trouble. Deep shit, even. And she knew it. Something had gone wrong and she was stuck somewhere with no way to tell exactly where she was.   
  
She thought briefly of Tara and then let the thought slide away. Wherever she was, she didn't think she could be reached. Or could she?  
  
She tried and failed to call out, using every bit of her force to scream into the darkness. Nothing, not even echoes to meet her non-existant ears. What in the world was this place?  
  
Willow tried to move her consciousness in another direction and found she could view the whole darkness without moving. It was dizzying and she nearly pitched forward, the piece of paper ripping some more. The stars around her throbbed and the image of a cave-wall flashed at her for a split second.   
  
~What in the world is that?~   
  
Gathering that inner, nameless power withing herself, she extended her senses and touched the shifting walls around her. Amazed that she even had her powers here, she was unprepared for the massive surge around her that crackled and sparked, gray, roiling smoke clouding up where her power touched the shifting stars/cave walls.   
  
Her consciousness was blasted backward and she teetered on the edge of the paper once more. She steadied herself and reached again, more tentatively. When she touched the stars/cave walls with her red tendril of power once more, she ready for the blast of gray smoke that bubbled up in place.   
  
She kept the steady flow of power and fed the stream, testing it for weakness and praying she was doing something that wasn't going to destablize the world around her.   
  
Suddenly, the cloud of roiling gray smoke parted in the center and she beheld the cave walls, stable and solid. Whatever she'd done, she seemed to have opened up a hole in the universe and now she was looking into some strange gathering place.   
  
She kept feeding her power into the stars and watched with intense interest as a huge band of orange, horned demons gathered around the altar of a stone demon with large clawed hands and the same horns of the demons in the cave.   
  
~It's some kind of ritual~ Willow thought and watched as the demons each approached the altar, kneeling and cutting into their own wrists, smearing their orange blood on the demon's lips.   
  
Faintly, she heard their rumbling voices as they echoed off the cave walls and bounced off the stars.  
  
~Auturus, we gather your sacrifices even now. Soon your terror will be unloosened on the world and at midnight you will destroy this reality. And we, your humble Villsk servants, will ascend to your higher plane.~   
  
Willow's attention was riveted on the demon talking, his robes gold as opposed to the black of the other demons. He must have been the High Priest and the one with the real power.   
  
The gears in her mind ground quickly. They wanted to end the world and the Gatekeeper had thrown her here on purpose, in an effort to stop it. That meant she was the only one who knew what they had planned. And she was alone.   
  
She fed more power into the gray smoke and decided to try something. She twisted a tendril of power and sent it through the gap in the world, reaching into the cave with lightning quick speed.   
  
The High Priest's great horned head snapped up in her direction, insect eyes narrowing and a growl huffing out his lungs.   
  
There was a tug as two separate powers were interlocked. Willow panicked for a moment and then steeled herself. That one moment was enough to knock her off balance though. She was shoved away with the force of a speeding train. Her power was thrust out of the roiling gray smoke and back into her. The wall closed and her view of the insides of the cave was lost.   
  
Willow stared at the stars, watching as they gave her teasing tastes of the insides of the cave. ~Well, that didn't work. What now?~ She thought glumly, trying to think of some way she could get out of this purgatory and into that cave without the High Priest sensing it. She had a feeling that was impossible.   
  
Good. She liked impossible.  
  
*** *** ***  
  
The Present  
  
"Whoa, that's pretty scary." Dawn said, glancing worriedly up at the redhead. Willow smiled back reassuringly and then turned to Giles and Spike.  
  
"Now what about you two? I wanna know how Giles dealt with drunken Spike!" She said, enjoying the way Spike's knuckles cracked. When he refused to answer, Giles stepped up to the plate.  
  
"Well I was trying not to rip Spike's head off and Spike was trying to sober up. It was quite interesting." Giles chuckled and looked entreatingly over at Spike.  
  
"Nahhh Watcher. I'm not much of a storyteller. You take this one." Spike drawled, leaning back into the shadows, a slightly less than amused smile on his face.   
  
"Right then. Like I said...Spike was completely off his gob and I was...coping with both he and the Buffybot."   
  
*** *** ***  
  
~GILES~  
  
Midsummer Night  
10:15 pm  
  
  
"What are the weapons for, human? You think you're going to fight us?" The largest demon said, laughing as he looked Giles over. Giles just sized him up and shifted his grip on the handle of his axe.   
  
"I believe so, if he can even stand." Giles jerked a thumb in Spike's direction. The blonde vampire shot him a dirty look and shifted in place, obviously torn between weaving upright and passing out. Of all the times for him to get drunk...  
  
"Hey, I'm very sober, thank you very much." Spike protested, holding onto his axe with a shaking hand. If Giles could have hit him, he would have.  
  
"Spike likes foreplay!" Giles turned his attention back to the Buffybot and prayed for patience. All he needed right now was for her to say something completely stupid. "I'm a Slayer!"  
  
And that would be it.   
  
"A Slayer?" A ghastly grin stretched over the demon's face and echoed on his friend's too. "I knew there was something about you. Not quite human..."  
  
Spike snorted. "You have no idea!"  
  
"Shut up Spike." Spike ignored him and went on, waving his axe in a lazy hand.  
  
"Bloody hell, arre we going to fight or not?"   
  
"Oh, yes, of course!" The biggest demon said, bowing a little and gesturing the vampire forward. Spike swung in immediately and was rewarded by a hard kick to his middle that sent him sprawling over a low tombstone. The demon laughed and launched himself on Spike's fallen form.   
  
"Bloody hell." Giles muttered and swung around, kicking his own chosen demon in the stomach. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw the Buffybot standing with her hands on her hips, waiting for the remaining demon to set upon her.   
  
A split second later, his attention was drawn back to his own demon. He jumped over a child's headstone and swung his axe upward with a mighty swing. It caught the demon on his horn, breaking the hard apendage in two. The demon howled and slashed out at him.   
  
The blow caught Giles on the shoulder and knocked him backward. The huge demon jumped on him, the feet Giles tried to bring up to kick it away tangling in the billowing black robes adorning the demon's frame. The demon landed flat out on top of him, forcing the breath out of his lungs in a whoosh. Giles struggled to bring the axe up and found the demon was pressing it to his neck, cutting off what remained of his air.   
  
"Giles! I'll help you!" The Buffybot broke away from demon attempting to twist her head off and grabbed the demon by the end of his broken horn. The demon went flying, landing roughly against the outer wall of Spike's crypt. The Buffybot hurried after it, exchanging blow after blow.   
  
"Right then. Switching partners." Giles muttered and turned on the Buffybot's forgotten demon. The demon growled and spun, lifting his massive, clawed hands and swiping at him. He dodged and dived behind a gravestone, catching sight of Spike in full vamp face head-butt his demon.   
  
His attention swiveled back to his own demon as it loomed over the edge of the gravestone, reaching for him and hauling him back over the stone and onto the ground. Giles kicked him in the stomach and flipped to his feet, swinging the axe and clipping it on the arm. Orange blood flowed and dropped in big splatters on the grass. Giles followed the blow up with a punch that sent the demon reeling away.   
  
Things started happening fast and Giles was lost in the fray as Spike collided with him and pushed him to the side.   
  
"Watch out Watcher! Coming through!" Spike said, smiling widely, canines extended, yellow eyes flashing.   
  
"Spike, you drunken lout!" Giles growled, pushing the vampire back. Spike pushed him back and screamed out when his chip fired.   
  
"Bloody hell!"   
  
Giles nearly smiled and then ducked as one of the demons swung at him from behind. This time Giles brought his axed up under the demon's chin and sliced the insect eyes down the middle. Bone split, wet flesh sliding along the edge of the axe blade and dropping on the ground. The demon screamed and dropped, body twitching as it died.   
  
He pulled the axe blade out of the demon's face and turned back toward the remaining two, ignoring Spike's whimper as he tried to get a handle on the pain. The Buffybot had her demon backed into wall of Spike's crypt, her fists flying much faster than a normal human's should.   
  
"Buffybot? Finish him!" Giles said in his most admonishing tone. The robot turned her head and regarded him with a reproachful look that was too reminiscent of her human counterpart. Giles's heart gave a painful squeeze and he tried to ignore the fact that the real thing was six feet under.   
  
The bot spun and landed her foot in the demons' chest, going through the layers of skin and bone with the heel of her shoe. Blood welled and the demon screamed, reaching out a powerful arm and slamming into the Buffybot's head.   
  
Giles winced as the head came free of the shoulders and tumbled across the grass and dirt, landing against Spike's boot. The vampire looked down into the vacant eyes and shuddered his vamp face away, collapsing next to the head. The demons's screams died down at the same time and he fell, along with the rest of the robot's body.   
  
"What in Auturus...?" The remaining demon said, walking forward, great horns bobbing as he looked down at the body of his fallen fellow, his insect eyes sliding down to the mass of wires at the stub of the robot's neck. "The Slayer's a robot?"  
  
"Shit."   
  
The demon looked up and then smiled another ghastly grin. And with that, he took off, running off into Spike's crypt, back the way he'd come, leaving Giles with a drunken vampire and a broken bot.   
  
Things were not going well.  
  
*** *** ***  
  
(end chapter)  
  
*** *** *** 


	3. Part Three

*** *** ***  
  
~PART THREE~  
  
The Present  
  
"Okay! So that's how the Buffybot got her head unnattached! You said it was because of a demon attack." Willow said, sitting up straighter and turning her attention on Giles.  
  
"It was a demon attack."  
  
"But you never told me the specifics."   
  
"I didn't think they were important. Afterall, I didn't know what the demons had planned back then. And...I had other things to worry about." Giles cast Spike a sidelong glance and was rewarded with a muttered "Sod it."   
  
"Wow, this is confusing." Xander spoke up, glancing over at Buffy who had a haunted expression her face once more. Xander frowned. What was causing that look? "Buffy?"  
  
"Huh?" She looked up and colored. "I'm listening. Go on! Anya...where were you during all this?"   
  
Anya nearly glowed as attention was turned on her once more.   
  
"Oh yes! I was doing something very, very important." The blonde ex-demon smiled and looked all around. "I was counting my money!"  
  
*** *** ***  
  
~ANYA~  
  
Midsummer Night  
10:30 pm  
  
"Whoo hoo!" Anya muttered, doing her dance of capitalism for an empty Magic Box. The lights were down, all except for the office and she felt terribly lonely in the stillness, despite the large pile of cash in her hands. It had been a good day at the shop and she was happy. Still, she wished someone was there to celebrate with her.   
  
A creeping sadness burned in her stomach. Things were so dark these days and even her sunny disposition was being affected. She wished, because in her experience wishing solved everything, that Buffy was alive. But her wishes were useless these days and she was left with a saddened Scooby Gang and an engagement ring she couldn't show off.   
  
Anya looked down at said ring and smiled. Large and shiny was her favorite description of it and she used it now as she admired at it's glittering gem. Xander had insisted she keep it hidden for now, until the mourning for the Slayer was over and she had said yes, although nowadays she was thinking maybe the news would cheer them up.   
  
A deep sigh and she put her hand down, closing the cashbox and tossing it in the little safe under Giles's desk. The sound of the lock clicking into place was terribly loud in the silence and she nearly flinched. Damn, she was so jumpy these days. Squaring her shoulders, Anya left the office, turning the lights out with a flick of her wrist.   
  
The storefront was shrouded in darkness, but she could make out the front door of the shop with keen brown eyes. Her boots clickety-clacked on the tiles as she made her way towards the exit. Halfway there, she stopped, her ears perked.  
  
BAM!   
  
The sound came from the alley entrance to the shop. Not good.   
  
"Crap."   
  
Grabbing up the closest weapon she could find--a big sword--Anya made her way towards the back entrance. Her heart leapt slightly and she remembered all the warnings Giles and Xander had given her about demons breaking into the magic shop whenever they felt like it. And killing the owners because they could. This was definately not good.  
  
A quick fumble for her keys and she unlocked the door, the sword snuggled in her hand in what should have been a comforting manner. Instead, the leather wrapped pommel sent shivers down her spine and she resisted the urge to run back the way she'd come.   
  
Still, she opened the door, inch by inch until a small crack allowed her a view of the alley. Her eyes widened as she took in the view of a big brown demon with huge horns and bug eyes standing with a vampire in the hand that wasn't severed. The demon shook the vampire and he spat blood into his face.   
  
The demon laughed and licked the blood away from his face and then slammed his fist into the vampire's twisted visage. A snarl echoed off the brick walls of the alley and came back to Anya's ears. She almost felt sorry for the vampire, but not quite. If the big demons--Villsks, she recognized--were concentrating on him, they wouldn't be interested in her shop, or her money.   
  
"Hold him still, Shvash! We don't want him so damaged he can't drink the human for the ceremony!" One of the demons growled from off camera. Anya opened the crack slightly more so she could see him. She caught sight of his horns just out the corner of her vision. The bleeding demon, Shvash, glared at the other demon and pulled the vampire closer to him, huge muscles quivering.   
  
:Ceremony? What ceremony?: Anya's ears perked up at that and she tried to think of what she knew about Villsk demons, which wasn't a lot. They worshipped the God Auturus and that was about all she knew. Straining, she listened more closely as the demon's voice rang out again.   
  
"Well, what are you waiting for, Lamak? Kick in that damned door so we can get the fire root!"   
  
Fuck. Anya cursed mentally and stepped away from the door. There was no way she was going to be there when Lamak kicked the door open. As powerful as she knew Villsks were, any blow would send her flying across the room.   
  
All they wanted was fire root anyway, right? If she just hid, they'd get it and go. Right?   
  
Better safe than sorry, she scampered back behind the counter and hid below the edge, the sword still tucked in her hand. Any unnecessary looting would bring her out, but she prayed that wouldn't happen. She wished Buffy were there and quickly bit back the sick feeling in her stomach.   
  
Anya flinched as the sound of the door being kicked off it's hinges echoed through the Magic Box. Crap. At least she was engaged to a carpenter. The sound of heavy footsteps followed and she felt her skin crawling with each weighty descent.   
  
:Just take the fire root and go....: Anya silently pleaded with the Villsks in her territory.   
  
CRASH! BOOM! BANG!  
  
Shelves crashed to the ground and glass vials shattered, spilling who-knew-what onto the floor of the shop. Anya silently prayed nothing potent had mixed with something it shouldn't. Then again...if something magickal happened to the Villsks, she wouldn't be upset.   
  
"Dammit Lamak! Just get the root! We don't have time to pillage! We gotta get this juicy Slayer to Oblish!" One of the demons said, and Anya's heart stopped in her throat. WHAT?  
  
She turned in place and crept upward, peeking over the edge of the counter. What she saw made her blood run cold.   
  
Dawn was firmly in the grip of the biggest Villsk, a big hand clamped over her mouth. Her eyes were wide and frightened, orange blood splashed across her face and hair. Her clothes were dirty and torn in several places, but she looked fine otherwise. Still, she was being held prisoner by a big ugly demon and that's never good.   
  
Anya tried to capture her attention, and ducked several times as the Villsk's gaze swept across the shop, searching for the fire root. The shopkeeper in Anya wanted to tell him the root was on the fifth shelf from the left, next to the mandrake root. Wisely she kept her mouth shut.   
  
Finally, Dawn looked her way, eyes going that much wider as she saw Anya gesturing slightly. Great, at least she knew someone else was here. Anya sunk back below the surface of the counter and bit her lip. She had to get Dawn away from the three ugly demons and get them all the hell OUT of her shop. But how?  
  
Suddenly, she smiled and crawled across the length of the counter to the cabinets hidden under the cash register. Slowly she slipped the drawer open, pulling a big tome out. She listened intently as the Villsks continued to loot her shop, talking loudly and covering up any noises she made.   
  
Flipping the big book open, she slid her hand down the spine and words appeared before her. This book was tricky, but big on the beginner's magick that even she could use. Words written in latin spelled out before her and she squinted her eyes in the gloom. English translations like Cliff's Notes were written to the side, telling the reader what it was they were saying exactly. Anya skimmed over the translations and flipped frantically through the book, looking for some kind of spell.  
  
And suddenly, the noises of the Villsk demons looting the store stopped and Anya looked up from the book.   
  
"What is this?"   
  
"Find something, Lamak?" The big demon holding Dawn asked, pushing the young girl up against the counter as he leaned over to look at Anya cowered behind the counter.   
  
"Shit."  
  
"What's that kind of talk for a bunny like you?"  
  
"Don't call me a bunny. I HATE bunnies!"   
  
The demon's chuckled and Anya saw the other one holding the vampire loom up behind her, severed hand still dripping onto her floor.   
  
"What's that you got, bunny?" Lamak asked, closing the distance between quickly.   
  
Anya panicked and looked back down at the book, letting the Latin spill out quickly as she read the spell on the page before her. Her voice echoed in the air for a moment and then...nothing.  
  
"Was that it? Pretty crappy spell if you ask me!" Lamak said, reaching for Anya once more.  
  
And then...his hand stopped inches from her, a green flash extending from his fingertips and arching down across Anya's body. There was the smell of electrical discharge and then the Villsk went flying. Anya watched open mouthed as the Villsk slid into the wall, fingers smoking green.   
  
"What the hell was that?" One of the demons asked; Anya wasn't sure who.  
  
She looked down at the text in front of her and read the English translation to the side out loud. "A force field keeping all harm from being done within a one foot radius to the caster. Ha! You can't touch me!"  
  
Anya stood confidently and flipped another page in the book. "Now, what else can we do here? Turn you all into frogs? Break your lower extremities into gumball-sized pieces? Hmm..."  
  
She looked up to see the corner's of Dawn's eyes crinkling in amusement.   
  
"How about you let the girl go or I'll just...." She looked down at the book and then smiled. "Send you all into the Abyssal Plane. Oh...I hear it's rainy this time of year!"   
  
"Look lady, we've got an Apocolypse to get to! Why don't you just put the fucking book down or I'll snap her neck!" The big demon holding Dawn growled, squeezing his big mottled hand tighter on Dawn's face. The amusement faded from the Key's eyes and she winced in pain.   
  
"I think you're forgetting, demon-guy, that I have the magic book here! Let her go!" Anya threatened, looking back down at the book, frown forming on her face.   
  
"Mmm...NO!" The demon said, flicking his tongue out to lick at Dawn's face. Anya grimaced and then sighed.   
  
"I warned you!" She shook her head sadly and read the latin written across the page in a loud clear voice.  
  
Immediately the world shook and the downed Villsk was lifted up into the air. Snakes formed in mid-air and coiled themselves around the demon's arms and legs. Anya repeated the last line of the spell two more times and the demon was pulled apart, yelling and screaming.   
  
"That's going to leave a stain." Anya commented as the demon's parts dropped back onto the floor. "Now, how about you?"  
  
"Fuck this, man! I'm already missing a hand!" The stumpy demon yelled, pushing the vampire away from himself and running full-tilt out the broken back door of the shop.   
  
The big demon holding Dawn watched him go, a growl rumbling up from his throat.   
  
"How about you?" Anya threatened, jerking the book in his direction and enjoying the flinch he made.   
  
"Don't think I'm not going to get you back for this, bunny!" The demon growled and threw Dawn across the shop straight at Anya. Anya managed to dodge Dawn's flailing body, remembering at the last second the force field was still on.   
  
Suddenly, Dawn stopped in mid-air and Anya's eyes popped open.  
  
"Good catch." Dawn said, smiling at the tall vampire as he set her down.   
  
"I owed you one, Slayer." The vampire said, his face melting back into human. Anya was impressed; he was pretty cute in that Italian way. She'd once cursed an Italian with inordinate amounts of body hair and his children had inherited the curse too. In fact, she had her own theories about Italian genetics, but that could wait until another time.  
  
Quickly, Anya flipped through the pages of the book until she found the banishing spell for the force field. She stumbled through the Latin quickly and felt the room echo around her for a moment. That was it.  
  
"Uh...yeah. Slayer." Dawn said, grinning a little bit as she looked over at Anya.  
  
"Slayer? You're not the Slayer." Anya said before she could stop herself.   
  
"I know. She's just a little girl." The vampire said, pushing Dawn up against the wall.   
  
"H-how do you know that, Fabreccio?" Dawn hazarded nervously, glancing over at Anya.   
  
"I have my ways, little girl." Fabreccio answered and smiled, pale skin covered in a big purple bruise. Anya had a feeling this wasn't going to be good.  
  
"What do you mean?" Anya asked, tearing his attention off the girl. Fabreccio turned to her and smiled again.   
  
"Thanks for the save. I thought I was a goner there for a minute. I hate Villsk demons, ya know? They're so...end-the-worldy. But you humans are always trying to stop that from happening and I gotta thank you!"   
  
"Thank me how?"   
  
"I think you know how..." Fabreccio allowed his vamp face to slip back on and he smiled wolfishly.   
  
"I wouldn't do that! You're looking at the Slayer!" Anya said before she could stop herself. Fabreccio chuckled and turned on her again.   
  
"No you're not!"   
  
"Yes I am!"  
  
"No you're not!"  
  
"Y-yes she is!"  
  
"Then why was the real Slayer running around the cemetary earlier tonight, kicking my ass and talking about getting maintenance from some lesbian?"   
  
"Oh. Um...."  
  
"Yeah." Fabreccio nodded his head and looked back at Dawn.  
  
"That wasn't the Slayer!" Dawn said, trying to get out of Fabreccio's grip. "That was a robot!"   
  
Anya groaned. Oh crap!  
  
*** *** ***  
  
The Present  
  
"Genius move, Nibblet! Why didn't you go ahead and tell him the bloody Slayer was dead?"  
  
"As much as I hate agreeing with Spike, and I do, that wasn't the wisest thing to say." Giles spoke up and Dawn squirmed under all their glares.   
  
"Sorry, I panicked. Besides, we took care of it."   
  
"It's true. Old Fabreccio didn't stay solid for long." Anya said, grinning widely.   
  
"How?"  
  
"You'll just have to wait! Who's next?"   
  
"Me." Tara said, raising her hand timidly. "I was knocked out for a while, but when I woke up, I knew I had to do something."   
  
  
*** *** ***   
  
~TARA~  
  
Midsummer Night  
10:30pm  
  
The air crackled and sparked all around her. Tara felt her nose trickling with blood from a far distance away from herself.   
  
Something wasn't right. The spell had gone wrong. How long had she been under?   
  
With a wrench, Tara pulled herself out of the power center she'd created with Willow. Slowly, very slowly, she came back to herself. Blood flowed freely down her face, but she ignored it and turned on Willow.   
  
Her girlfriend's body was suspended two feet in the air, eyes black, head thrown back to the ceiling where something thick and gray roiled in a cloudy tangle. White sparks crackled out from the center of the cloud, licking out along Willow's skin and singing paths through the buff-colored robe on her frame.   
  
"Willow? Willow?!!" Tara called, trying to stand, her legs trembling and threatening to throw her back to the floor. "Honey!"  
  
Nothing.   
  
Tara reached for Willow's hand and was thrown back by a bolt of that white-hot lightning. She hit the edge of Giles's table with a muffled thump, her head banging against the wood before she slid down to the floor again.   
  
"Oh God...." Tara moaned, clutching her aching head. "Something went really, really wrong."   
  
Her thoughts ran in frantic circles and she cast out idea after idea. Suddenly, she caught on something and ran to the phone on the endtable. She picked it up and dailed Giles's number immediately.   
  
It rang once, twice, ten times before Tara flung the phone down in frustration. Why wasn't Giles picking his phone up?   
  
"Okay...just me and a busted spell. I can do this..." Tara whimpered, closing her eyes and trying to make her throbbing head stop it's frantic circles. She picked up the book of spells they had been using and flipped through the crackled pages for the right one.   
  
Nothing. Nothing about things going wrong, except that warning about the Gatekeeper.   
  
The Gatekeeper! He had done something to Willow, just like Tara had feared. And now Willow was stuck in the Spirit World, somewhere in between time and space.   
  
"Don't make me come and get you, Will." Tara murmered, throwing the book across the room and walking up behind Willow. Centering herself, Tara felt her rage grow in her chest. She had to get the Gatekeeper to give Willow back to her. There was no other choice.   
  
The trance descended on Tara far quicker than even she had thought possible. The crackling, smoky world spun away from her and then there was nothing but darkness.   
  
Into that darkness, Tara called out the chant.  
  
"Gatekeeper of Death  
Grant me entrance  
I fall to your feet   
and tremble  
Fear you Gatekeeper  
as I cross the mortal world  
Grant me entrance!  
So mote it be!"   
  
The ring of power rose about her and Willow's empty body until there was nothing but the trembling blackness of the world all around her. And then....the Gatekeeper.  
  
~You dare come here, witch!~  
  
Tara tried to find her voice. ~I've come for Willow. Give her back to me!~  
  
The Gatekeeper chuckled in a dark liquid voice. "You are wrong."  
  
~What?~ Tara was breathless, all light being sucked away from her and funneled into the core of the world. She glanced and saw the light, souls twirling in and out from the center. This place was horrible. ~How am I wrong?~  
  
~I have not taken her soul!~   
  
~Then why is she like this!~ Tara waved her hand and an image of Willow's unconscious body flared across the blackness. The Gatekeeper studied it with detatched, cold amusement.  
  
~She is somewhere else.~  
  
~I know that. You took her! She came to you for help and you took her!~ Tara was amazed at her bravery.   
  
~I merely sent her where she was needed. Your love has much power.~   
  
~Where did you send her?~   
  
~To stop the Apocolypse, witch.~  
  
~What Apocolypse? There is no Apocolypse.~ Tara said, looking around at the black, funneling darkness. The world suddenly tilted and threw her out of the way. ~No!~   
  
~Help her and I'll send her back to you, witch!~ The Gatekeeper's voice throbbed around her and she clutched with her mind for purchase in the darkness.   
  
She found nothing and suddenly slammed back into her body. Moments later she opened her eyes and stared up at the roiling cloudy sky above her. She grimaced as another white-hot bolt licked its way along Willow's spine. Her lover's body shuddered at the feel; Tara moved with her.   
  
Shaking her head, Tara stood once more and thought about what the Gatekeeper had said.   
  
Help Willow and she would get her back. But where had he sent her?  
  
There was only one way to find out.   
  
Tara moved up in front of Willow's suspended body. "Oh God....I hope this works."   
  
Moving quickly, she grabbed ahold of Willow's temples, the lightning flaming up over her body and covering her in it's white-hot pain. Tara cried out and threw her head back, shouting the only thing that would float across her mind as the pain took her.  
  
Everything went black. And then, time was ripped away from her so fast the breath was knocked from her body. And then *she* was knocked from her body and the world rushed away from her with the speed of a thousand racing bullets.   
  
It sped closer and closer and then SLAM!  
  
She heard a heartbeat and voices. And then smelled strawberries near her.   
  
~Willow?~ Tara breathed with lips she didn't have.   
  
~Tara!~ Tara opened her eyes and smiled, despite the shifting world around her. Willow stared at her from a vastness, body shifting back and forth between forever and the stars.   
  
~Honey! I...~   
  
And suddenly, their attention was forced back to the world around them as the stars disappeared and the rock walls of a cave focused around them, gray clouds everywhere. Tara's eyes widened as she stared at three big orange demons with horns and insect eyes.   
  
What the hell?  
  
*** *** ***  
  
The Present  
  
"Wow, that was pretty intense." Xander commented, staring with new respect at the blonde witch.   
  
"Yeah." Tara nodded and smiled modestly.   
  
"So you two were in the cave, in corporeal form, and what was going on with drunken Spike and Giles?" Xander asked with a sour grin.   
  
"Spike tells this part much better than I." Giles said with narrowed eyes.   
  
"Oh sod it, Watcher." Spike muttered and then leaned forward. "It was like this...I got caught and Giles let me have it."  
  
*** *** ***  
  
~SPIKE~  
  
Midsummer's Night  
10:30pm  
  
"Bloody hell...my head hurts."  
  
"Alcohol will do that, you sodding idiot." Giles muttered, bending low over the Buffybot and examining the wires. With a jerk, he pulled the body free of the demon, grimacing as the foot was pulled out of the chest cavity with a wet, sucking sound.   
  
"Not the bleedin' alcohol. It's the chip." Spike muttered petulantly, rubbing his temples. "I hate the damned thing."   
  
"It's a blessing in my opinion."   
  
"Well I didn't ask for your opinion, did I? Why don't you run along and go play with your little Scoobies!"  
  
"Get up, Spike! Right now!" Giles commanded, making Spike look up, his bloodshot eyes filled with tears. The vampire looked like hell. Giles almost felt sorry for him, but not quite. He was still Spike afterall.   
  
Spike climbed to his feet, letting the axe in his hands drop to the ground. His head throbbed and tried to ignore the stench of the demon's guts that was, even from ten feet away, permeating the air. Sometimes he hated his vampire senses. A human couldn't have been able to smell it from that far away.  
  
"What about our doll here? Red'll have a time getting it fixed." He commented, trying not to look down at the severed head, knowing that if he did he'd collapse again. He couldn't see her like that. It reminded him too much of that night not so long ago.   
  
"Willow reattached the head once before. She can do it again." Giles answered, his back to the vampire.   
  
"Yeah, well...maybe you should take it out of here. Leave me be and all." Spike slurred, starting back toward his crypt. He was stopped in mid-step by a heavy hand on his shoulder that wheeled him around. A pair of hard knuckles were slammed into his face, a flash of white-hot pain throbbing up through his head.   
  
Spike landed in a sprawl on his own doorstep, blood flowing freely down his chin.   
  
"What the hell!!??" He exclaimed indignantly, hand going up to his face. Giles stared calmly down at him, eyebrow arched as if he were daring Spike to get up and hit him back. "Why'd ya do that for?"  
  
"If I EVER see you touch her again, I'll kill you. Do you understand me Spike?"  
  
"It was an accident."  
  
"I saw it happen. It was no accident, Spike. You lost control and you touched her."   
  
"Newsflash, Rupert! It's not HER."   
  
"You're right. You're right Spike, it's just a robot that resembles her. But she's the only thing I have left of my Slayer and if you so much as look her in the eyes I will stake you. I promise you that." Giles ground out from between clenched teeth. "Do you understand?"  
  
"It's none of your bu--" He was interrupted as Giles leapt on him, a stake materializing in his hands and pressed over Spike's heart.   
  
"Do you understand me, William?" Giles's eyes were cold and harsh. Spike knew that look; it was the same look his eyes had been haunted by since Buffy's death. The look of a grieving man with more pain than he could handle and ready to snap.   
  
Giles had just snapped and Spike couldn't really blame him.   
  
"I understand. Now gerroff me!" Giles stood immediately and helped the vampire up with an extended hand. He weaved to his feet and brushed the leaves off his dirty pants. "So what now?"   
  
"Now, we follow that demon."   
  
"Why?"   
  
"Because he knows the Slayer's a robot. Understand?"   
  
"Gotcha. Let's go." Spike said, hefting his axe and gesturing toward his crypt. As Giles walked through the door, Spike had to wonder about his life.   
  
Things were certainly fucked up.  
  
*** *** ***  
  
(end chapter)  
  
*** *** *** 


	4. Part Four

~PART FOUR~  
  
The Present  
  
"Yeah." Spike finished up, tapping his silver ring on the hard wooden arm of the chair he was sitting in. The sound echoed and everyone sat there for a moment.   
  
"So...Anya? What h-happened after that?" Tara hazarded, breaking the silence Spike had caused.   
  
"Oh? Are we back to me and my story now?" Dawn coughed and Anya amended. "Our story. Dawny and I!"   
  
"Yeah, An, tell me all about it. What did my brave little woman do?" Xander said, smiling up at Anya, kissing along her neck. She giggled and smacked him away.   
  
"Fabreccio was just asking for a good slay and I was ready for him. Er...we were ready for him!"   
  
*** *** ***   
  
~ANYA~  
  
Midsummer's Night  
11:50pm  
  
  
"The Slayer's a robot? Are you joking with me?" Fabreccio said, his mouth dropping open.   
  
"Yes!! She's joking! Of course! Ha-ha! Fooled you, vampire!" Anya said, false cheerfulness enforced. Dawn caught her drift and laughed along with her, albeit forced.   
  
"No tricking you!" Dawn said, trying to move away from him.   
  
"What about that whole lesbian maitenance thing?"   
  
"Oh that? Oh...the Slayer's....umm...she's gay. Yep. Great big lesbian." Anya nodded her head, edging toward the counter where she'd left her book of spells. "Yep, can't get enough of the girls! That's our Buffy!"  
  
Dawn looked mildly appalled, but she didn't say anything as she tried to wriggle out of Fabreccio's grip.   
  
"You're shitting me." Fabreccio looked quite interested, the pervert. "Did you know that?"   
  
Dawn stopped in mid-motion as he turned back on her. She nodded her head and started talking, trying to distract Fabreccio away from Anya.   
  
"Oh yeah. There's been rumors about her for years...mmhmm..."   
  
Anya tuned the younger girl out and reached for the book of spells. Her hand touched the leather-bound cover just as Fabreccio turned his attention back on her.   
  
"I don't fucking think so!" Fabreccio growled and leapt across the distance, knocking the spellbook out of Anya's hands and then slapping the ex-demon to the floor.   
  
"Hey!" Dawn jumped on the vampire's back as Anya looked up at the two of them from under a haze of pain. The vampire threw Dawn off and the girl landed on the counter, falling off to the other side with a shout and a thump.   
  
"If I had my powers, I'd so turn you into something nasty." Anya ground out, trying to climb to her feet. Fabreccio kicked her in the ribs and she grunted in pain.   
  
"You aren't so tough without your spellbook, are you?"   
  
"Oh yeah, and you looked real manly nearly peeing your pants back in the cemetary!" Dawn quipped, rising to her feet, brown hair plastered to her face.   
  
"Shut up, Slayer!" Fabreccio sneered mockingly. "Now, the real question is, which one do I eat first? Yummy little girl or beautiful shopkeeper? Decisions, decisions."   
  
"How about neither?" Anya growled, climbing painfully to her feet.   
  
"You don't know how to stay down do you?"  
  
"You know...for a thousand years I controlled the power of the wish and you know what? I don't take anyone's crap. I speak my mind and screw you if you don't like it! I make the rules and I am not going to be killed in my own shop by some STUPID VAMPIRE!!!" Anya screamed the last word, her anger released like a whiplash.   
  
Fabreccio's eyes widened as she jumped on him, knocking them both to the ground in a tumble of limbs. Fabreccio's head cracked against the linoleum. Anya punched him in the face and howled in pain as her fist throbbed.   
  
"Dawny! Stake!"   
  
"Oh right!" Dawn rushed to the lighted table in the center of the room, snatching a forgotten stake off of it and sprinting back to Anya. The rough wooden object passed hands and Anya lifted it in an arch.   
  
Before she could bring it down, Fabreccio pushed her off, rolling out from under her and kicking back a leg, catching Dawn in the shin and knocking her back into Anya.   
  
"Fuck if you think you're gonna stake me!" Fabreccio spat, moving toward the open back door of the Magic Box.   
  
"Fuck if you think you're gonna get away!" Dawn yelled, ignoring the look Anya shot her. Fabreccio ran out the back door as Anya climbed to her feet.   
  
"Come on!" They ran out after him, the gloom of night enveloping them as soon as they hit the alley. "Stay behind me, Dawn. And where the hell is Xander? Wasn't he supposed to be with you tonight?"   
  
"He had other stuff to do."  
  
Anya frowned. "What other stuff? He didn't tell me!" Her attention turned back to the alley as Fabreccio cast a shadow across their path. "What an idiot. Any good bad guy knows to leave when he's being beaten."  
  
"Come on out!" Dawn piped up, exchanging a glance with Anya. The shopkeeper, waved her off and stepped forward.   
  
A stack of crates suddenly tumbled over, hitting Dawn and sending her to the ground. Anya wheeled and was suddenly pinned back against the brick wall, her foot in a pile of garbage.   
  
"Beautiful shopkeeper it is." Fabreccio said, sharp teeth piercing his lip as he descended on Anya's exposed neck. The girl shuddered and closed her eyes. Then her arm jerked upward and Fabreccio felt a stab go through him. "You bitch!"  
  
He crumbled to ash before her, the stake clattering to the ground. Anya stood there, her heart beating furiously in her chest. It took her a moment to get her composure back and when she did, she noticed Dawn was still immobile under the stack of crates.   
  
"Dawn!" She lifted the crates off the young girl's back. "Are you okay?"   
  
"Yeah...where did he go?" Dawn said, shaking her head to clear it. She looked around and noticed the pile of ash on the ground. "You staked him?"  
  
"Yes! I'm very proud of myself!"   
  
"Cool." Dawn took Anya's hand and she helped her to her feet. "W-what about those demons?"  
  
"What about them?" Anya's eyes narrowed.  
  
"They said they were trying to end the world. Tonight." Dawn brushed dirt off her clothes and bit her lip.  
  
"What time is it?" Anya said, seemingly out of the blue. Dawn lifted her shirt sleeve and looked at her watch.   
  
"Eleven. Why?" Anya visibly relaxed. "It's too late then. Villsk demons have to have a vampire and a human for their practices and can only do the ritual once a century, on midsummer's night. The ritual takes an hour to complete and at midnight, Auturus, their God, shows up. If it's eleven, then they're out of time."   
  
"B-but...what if they had another team out looking for a vampire and a human? What if they already got what they needed?" Dawn's eyes were wide and scared.  
  
"In that case, we're screwed. I guess we'll find out in an hour, right?" Anya's smile wavered and she looked around nervously.   
  
"That's kinda 50/50 isn't it?"   
  
"Yeah."   
  
"Oh." Dawn went quiet. "Well if the world doesn't end, you promise not to tell Giles or Tara that I was out at night, getting captured by demons and nearly being vamp food?"   
  
"Sure!" Anya smiled once more and then went serious. "If we don't all die horrible that is."   
  
*** *** ***  
  
The Present  
  
"Of course, an hour went by and nothing happened. The demons obviously didn't get their sacrifices." Anya beamed and leaned back.  
  
"Yeah they did." Willow said, nodding knowingly. Anya ignored her and turned on Dawn.  
  
"So, end of our story, right Dawny?"  
  
"Yep. Pretty brave huh?" Dawn looked up at her big sister and saw the Slayer tugging at the hem of her shirt like her skin hurt.   
  
"Yeah. You both kicked some ass." Buffy said automatically, her eyes once again far away. Her eyes focused again and she glared down at Dawn. "But promise me you won't do that EVER AGAIN!"   
  
"Sheesh! I promise!"   
  
"And I'm not a lesbian! No offense guys." Buffy said, her face screwed up into an expression of annoyed amusement.  
  
"None taken." Tara and Willow answered automatically.  
  
"You know...I never did find out where you went that night!" Anya exclaimed, turning on Xander. He opened his mouth to speak and then turned back to Tara and Willow.   
  
"What about you two crazy witches? What's up with the freaky out-of-this-worldliness? You mentioned something about the demons getting their sacrifices...?"   
  
"Oh...that...we were in some serious trouble, I think." Tara answered, blushing as all eyes turned on her.  
  
"Serious? Boy howdy! And if Tara hadn't been there, I would have been toast!" Willow said, lacing her hands fondly through Tara's. "Tell them how you bravely rescued me from the clutches of badness!"   
  
"Umm...after I got sucked into her, whatever, I knew I had to get her out again. And I-I had a plan. But first we needed to kick a little demon booty."   
  
*** *** ***  
  
~TARA~  
  
Midsummer  
10:45pm  
  
~What's going on Willow?~ Tara asked, her stomach dropping as the stars shifted around her. Her attention was riveted on the roiling cloud with the image of a cave inside of it. Somehow, she knew that the image was real and that the cloud was some sort of portal.   
  
~No time to explain. I need you to help me keep this open so I can do something.~   
  
~Do what?~  
  
~Kill those demons.~  
  
~Why?~  
  
~They're going to try and end the world and....uh-oh...~ Tara saw the portal collapse on itself, closing back, the stars taking it's place. ~Damn! I can't do it and try and find a way into the cave at the same time.~  
  
~Let me try...~ Tara said, reaching out and probing the shifting wall and stars with her own whisp of blue energy. She was slightly prepared as the gray cloud roiled out, the cave solidifying as she touched it. With a wrench, she slammed it open and moved out of the way for Willow.   
  
She felt her lover's essence move up beside her, wishing she could see her face so she could be reassured by a smile. But knowing she was *here* was enough for her. Now if only they could get this done and get back to the real world.   
  
Willow moved up and Tara saw her red tendril of power spiral through the hole into the real world. Immediately the power was grabbed by a black, oily power spike that drew it into the room further. There was excitement in the cave and the demons Tara couldn't identify circled the High Priest and the statue of their long-fingered God.   
  
~What are they doing?~ Tara asked, but Willow ignored her and pressed her power further into the oily black energy surrounding her own. The blackness started to creep out of the hole in the dimensions and toward Willow's essence. ~Willow!~  
  
Again, Willow ignored her and kept feeding her own energy into the demon's. The High Priest started chanting something that Tara couldn't make out. Fear gripped her and she struggled to keep the dimensional wall open.   
  
Suddenly, Willow cried out a big tendril of her energy was sucked out of her essence poured into the darkeness. It was the sound of pain and it set off an alarm in Tara's heart. Whatever was going on, it was going to kill Willow unless she did something about it.   
  
Tara let the gray, smoking dimensional hole collapse around the tendril of black. Like a cat's tail caught in a door, the tendril roiled in front of her, connected like a leech to Willow's own power.   
  
~Tara! What are you doing?~  
  
~Saving you!~ Tara answered her, surging her own energy forward and lancing it through the oily black tendril. She heard the demon priest screech and then tendril let go of Willow. With another wrench, she grabbed ahold of the wall again and opened it up.   
  
She saw the Priest collapse on the ground before his statue, just as a vampire and a human were thrown to the ground in front of him.   
  
~Oh God! They've got the sacrifices!~ Willow exclaimed, her broken power tendril throbbing crimson. ~We need to do something!~  
  
~I thought you *were* doing something Will!~   
  
~It didn't work. I need to try something new...~ Willow's essence was quiet a moment and then she spoke with sureity. ~Hold the portal open. When I reach in, close it again and join my power with yours.~  
  
~Okay...~ Tara did as she was told, holding the wall open and glaring in at the demons as they helped their wounded priest up off the ground. The sacrifices were thrown at the foot of the clawed-demon, bound to each other. The female vampire looked shiftily at the human male she was tied to, trying to resist the lure of the blood beneath the flesh. Tara prayed she was strong.   
  
Willow reached in suddenly and the High Priest caught the disruption in the energy. He grabbed her tendril once more just as Tara added her own to Willow's. There was a blast and the demon was knocked against the cave wall. The demon's nearly ran in circles, staring up at the walls and the vast ceiling as if they could see the two witches.   
  
~What now?~  
  
~Hold on...we're going hit them all!~  
  
Willow guided their combined power cord, throwing it at the nearest demon and slamming it against the wall. Tara saw orange gobs of blood splatter where the demon's huge skull cracked open. They did the same to the twenty other demons standing in the circle, killing some and dropping others unconscious on the floor.   
  
Tara trembled and felt her energy weaken. Willow also trembled, but her power was far greater than Tara's.   
  
~What now?~  
  
~Meditae!~ Willow whispered, touching the ropes binding the vampire to the human. They fell to the floor and the human bounded to his feet, running out of the cave and out of sight. The vampire started to get up, her face bruised from fighting. ~Arlos!~   
  
A piece of driftwood was lifted off the cave floor and imbedded itself in the vampire's chest, the creature turning to dust immediately. Tara was stunned, wondering what Willow was doing.   
  
~Will...?~  
  
~Morditae ab Orditae ca Malea....~ There was a flash of light and then the stone altar was cracked apart, pieces of stone exploding and flying across the cave.   
  
Tara gasped and felt Willow's essence weaken dramatically. Tara knew, suddenly, that spells weren't meant to be done in corporeal states; the results weren't stable and it worked on pure energy, draining a human dangerously close to death. Every beginning Wicca knew that.   
  
~WILLOW! Stop!!~  
  
~No! I have to do this!~ Tara sensed desperation in Willow's voice...something dangerously close to insanity in the tones.   
~NO!~ Tara grabbed ahold of Willow's essence and jerked it back through the dimensional hole. The hole closed behind them, the gray smoke disappating into the stars. ~You're going to kill yourself!~  
  
~But I...~  
  
~NO! The demon's are stopped. We've done what we can and now we HAVE to get home!~  
  
~I...I don't know how to get back...I...~  
  
~I do...Gatekeeper of Death  
Grant me entrance  
I fall to your feet   
and tremble  
Fear you Gatekeeper  
as I cross the mortal world  
Grant me entrance!  
So mote it be!~  
  
There was a flash and the speed of sound rushing past them, the grabbing, clutching darkness landing them back at the gates of hell.   
  
~Witch.~   
  
Tara glared up at the Gatekeeper's ghastly visage. ~I've done what you told me to.~  
  
~So you have. Tell your witch I would have kept her soul if not for your bravery. You dared the threshold of Hell and she dared presume I would help in her selfish quest. Tell her I have given her a chance at salvaging a soul, and she fullfilled it. The sacrifice was an innocent and she saved him.~ The Gatekeeper said, not addressing Willow, even though she was right in front of him.   
  
~Will you send us back to our reality?~  
  
~Yes. But do not call on me again, witch.~  
  
~Of course.~  
  
Tara was suddenly slammed back into her own body so fast she didn't know what hit her. She opened her eyes and saw Willow sitting up, her face pale and drained.   
  
"I..wow. That was....wow."  
  
"Don't you EVER do that to me again!" Tara exclaimed immediately, rushing over to her girlfriend, not sure whether or not slap her or hug her. She opted for the hug, wrapping her up in her arms.  
  
"I'm...I'm sorry baby. I..."  
  
"No...you shouldn't be. You saved an innocent, not mention the world. But still, you lost it in that...place."   
  
"I didn't lose it. I was perfectly in control." Willow insisted indignantly, pulling away from Tara.  
  
"No you weren't. You were messing with actual magic in a place where magic is unstable. You know as well as I do that only pure energy is allowed in dimensional rifts. It's a baby lesson!" Tara snapped, amazed at her own anger.  
  
"I know...but I did what I had to do. And besides, everything is fine. See? Back to normal." Willow hazarded a smile and Tara sighed, her anger draining slowly down her spine. "Forgive me?"  
  
"Just this once! But don't let it happen again..." Tara smiled back at her and embraced her again. She hugged her for a long moment and then opened her eyes. "Uh-oh..."  
  
"What?"   
  
"Giles is going to kill us." Tara said, eyeing the mess around them.   
  
"Crap."  
  
*** *** ***  
  
The Present  
  
"Wow. That was pretty dangerous stuff there, Will." Xander said, his brow furrowed.   
  
"Yes. It was." Giles's voice was dark and Willow looked away from his eyes.   
  
"I just did what I had to do."   
  
"Yes but..."  
  
"Let's drop it, okay? Things are fine..." Tara interjected, smiling and almost visibly stepping between her girlfriend and the rest of the gang. "Besides, I want to hear about you and Spike, Mr. Giles. Did you kill the other demon?"  
  
"I didn't. Drunken, maudlin Spike had a hand in that."   
  
"Hey!"  
  
"Shut up Spike. Anyway..."  
  
*** *** ***  
  
~GILES~  
  
Midsummer's Night  
10:50pm  
  
The drunken vampire behind him stumbled and cursed loudly in the tunnels below the cemetary, bones crunching under the heel of his boot. "Bloody piss..."  
  
"SHUT UP, Spike. Now." Giles ground out, turning to glare at the blonde vampire.   
  
"Sure thing, Watcher." Spike mumbled, still cowed by the verbal relay a few minutes before. Giles felt a tug in heart; he truly hadn't meant to lose it like with the vampire, but his anger had welled up and he couldn't help himself. He hurt. He hurt so much and seeing what he'd seen had been too much for him.   
  
Suddenly, Giles stopped in his tracks, Spike stumbling into his backside. "Shhh..."  
  
"What's up?"   
  
"SHHH..."   
  
Silence followed and Giles held his breath, listening for the demon moving in the tunnels. If the damned vampire hadn't have been drunk, he'd have him looking for the demon, but he wasn't in his right mind at the moment.   
  
The sound of a horn scraping the low ceiling of the tunnel sounded up ahead at a bending in the tunnel. Giles gestured Spike forward.   
  
They burst around the corner of the tunnel and Giles lashed out with his axe, hitting the demon in the horn. He noticed it was the one he'd smashed one of the horns off of earlier. Unfinished business and very unpleasant business at that.   
  
"Fuck! What did I ever do to you?"   
  
Giles stopped in mid-swing, almost taken aback by the question.   
  
"You tried to kill us?"   
  
"Matter of principal...it's what I do."  
  
"True." Spike giggled and nodded his head. "That is what demon's do. Damn I miss that."   
  
"SHUT UP, Spike." Giles snapped and turned back to the Villsk. "You, I'll ask the questions."  
  
"So, what's the question?" The demon asked, and once again Giles stopped in mid-motion.   
  
"Shut up and fight already." He snapped impatiently.   
  
The fight began and Giles swiped at the demon with his axe. It was kicked out of his hands and Giles flinched as it skittered across the ground, disappearing into the shadows. The demon followed up his kick with a punch to Giles's head.   
  
"Why the head?" Giles muttered as he stumbled backward. "Spike?"  
  
"Huh? Oh...right!" Spike lifted his own axe, his vamp face sliding into place with a growl. He attacked the demon immediately and the two rolled on the ground. Giles went after his own axe and jumped back into the fight. His eyes widened as the demon kicked at him again, sending him reeling back into the walls of the tunnel. He'd have a huge bruise there for the next couple of days.   
  
Maybe even weeks.  
  
The demon turned back to Spike and ran a claw down Spike's face, making the vampire growl. "Okay..that's it." Spike muttered, kicking the demon off himself. "Time to do it my way..."   
  
Giles watched with wide, impressed eyes as all drunkness seemed to seep out of the thin vampire's mannerisms. He leapt to his feet and punched the demon, sending him against the wall beside Giles. His own axe was lost in the fight as he pummelled the demon with his fists. Finally, he stopped and turned to Giles.   
  
"Weapon?"   
  
"Right." Giles handed it to him and nearly smiled as the vampire sliced off the demon's head with one swift swipe of the blade. Orange blood blossomed and splattered them both.   
  
Spike eyed the remains as they slid down the wall.   
  
"Right then. We done here?"   
  
"Yes."   
  
"Later." With that, he turned on his heel and walked away. Giles stared after him, blinking the darkness.   
  
What a strange night.   
  
*** *** ***  
  
(end chapter)  
  
*** *** *** 


	5. Part Five

~PART FIVE~  
  
The Present  
  
"That was...kinda anti-climatic." Anya frowned at Giles as he finished his tale. "Our ending was much better."  
  
"Yes, well...not everything can be so dramatic, Anya." Giles snipped back at her.   
  
"So...that's how it all happened, huh? Wow, I'm not even needed here." Buffy said, glancing around at all of them. They shifted uncomfortably and then offered her stumbling protestations. "Okay, okay...I get it."   
  
"But hey, we saved the world! Yay! Us!" Dawn said, grinning and feeling like she was part of the big fight for once and not just the cause of it.   
  
"That's gotta be good for your karma." Willow said, squeezing Tara's hand.   
  
"I'm still bothered by something." Buffy interjected, frowning.   
  
"What's that, love?" Spike asked, lighting up a cigarette in the corner. Blue-gray smoke wreathed up around his head and his eyes lingered over her face.  
  
"Where the hell was Xander?"   
  
"Yeah! We were all having way dangerous adventures and guess who's missing? Xander!" Dawn offered and saw him shift in his chair.   
  
"Yeah Xander, spill. What was so important that you had to leave Dawn home alone?"   
  
Xander smiled for a moment. He opened his mouth to speak and thought back to that night.   
  
  
*** *** ***  
  
~XANDER~  
  
Midsummer's Night  
10:30pm  
  
The gravestone was polished to perfection. He lifted his hand and traced the lettering with a pale finger. A shadow crossed his brooding features and a weight was settled heavily on his shoulders.   
  
Xander frowned and wondered why some things never changed.   
  
"She was really beautiful, wasn't she?" Xander commented, stepping up next to the gravestone, his hands jammed deep into his pockets.   
  
"Yes she was."   
  
"I'm glad you came."  
  
"How could I resist?"  
  
"You should have been here, you know." Xander's voice nearly cracked.   
  
"I know."  
  
"I don't blame you."   
  
"Really? That's a new one."   
  
"Hey, no snapping. I'm trying to talk to you civilly, remember? I'm being the big man here."   
  
"Sorry. I've got one mode with you."  
  
"Yeah."   
  
Silence radiated for a moment and then Xander spoke up again. "Did you love her?"  
  
"Yes. But...not....not like before. You?"  
  
"Yes. But I have Anya now. Buffy was...my hero."   
  
"Mine too."   
  
"Do you regret leaving?"  
  
"Sometimes. But...our lives were meant to be apart. Still..."  
  
"I understand."   
  
Silence fell once more and Xander shifted in place, glancing down at the polished letters on the gravestone. His eyes followed the fingers that had traced the letters last.   
  
"How is Dawn?"   
  
"Coping. Willow and Tara have moved in with her."   
  
"Good. I was worried about that."   
  
"Yeah."   
  
"I have to go now."  
  
"Why? Daylight's a while away."   
  
"I know. It's...I've got a boat to catch."   
  
"A boat?"   
  
"I'm going someplace to...to deal."   
  
"Oh." Xander said as the tall figure started to turn and then stopped. A pale hand was extended in his direction. Xander looked at it a moment and then he grasped it in his fingers. It was a small gesture, but it meant a lot to him. Some things were finally healed.   
  
"Take care of them all."   
  
He let go a second later and then watched as Angel walked away from him, disappearing into the night like he'd always done. Only this time, there was no Slayer by his side.   
  
Xander sighed and looked down at the gravestone. He crouched down low and traced the letters with his finger.   
  
"Goodbye."  
  
*** *** ***  
  
The Present  
  
"I don't remember." Xander said, much to everyone's dismay. He smiled and shrugged.   
  
Some stories weren't meant to be shared.  
  
*** *** ***  
  
(end story)  
  
*** *** *** 


End file.
